Chapter 16：Temple Master, Xue Liuxian

I reached the temples praying room and started meditating. I need to hurry up and unlock the secret door by myself. Zixie said he would help me, but obviously he's never coming back. I didn't give him a chance at all. Seeing people hurt like this is why I I can't say no, but when I think of the consequences, I can only say no. Zixie, I'm so sorry, but we're just not meant to be.

I know the master of this temple. He rarely comes out so nobody knows what he looks like, but I know he is just like me. Someone from a different world. Specifically, my world. I've known him for 6 years already. It was Lu Ming who introduced him to me.

I need his help if I want to remove this curse. If I truly want to have a new identity. Something I can create myself, not this fake mask somebody else had created for me.

All of a sudden while I was in thought, the door opened and I saw Ling Rui.

"What are you doing here?"

"I wanted to apologize for what my mom did. She never really cared for my opinions even when I state them. I didn't want to marry the prince, but she kept on insisting."

"Hey, he's not so bad. You told me that you heard things, but how can you trust them when you haven't even spoken to him yourself. The prince may have a cold demeanor, but that doesn't mean he is horrible. Say, did you ever think that maybe somebody tried to tarnish his name by spreading those things?"

"No."

"Ling Rui, you should ask more than one question when you are thinking about the prince. He is someone trustworthy. If you married him, he would treat you will even with his gruff appearance. If he fell in love with you, he would be loyal to you and never look at another girl's eyes."

"How do you know all of these things? I heard that the prince never interacts with any of the women."

"Everyday he comes to my court."

"He must love you."

"Hehe... He does, but I don't."

"Why not? You said that the prince is loyal and you even made it look like as if he could be kind to the person he loves."

"If I could love him, I would be so happy, but there is a reason why I can't."

"Your his concubine, you have a right to love him already."

"Whether concubine or not, I can't unless I wish to die a painful death."

"Sis Ling, no matter how much you try to persuade me to marry him, I won't. I don't love him. Besides, I have an even better reason why I shouldn't marry him now. He loves you."

"Then, I won't stop you, but in the future, don't make trouble for me for not telling you."

"I won't, instead, I want to ask you if you can ask the prince to take back the offer of marrying me. My mom and dad definitely won't make the move, instead they'll try to secure it as much as they can."

"There's no need for me to tell him."

"What?"

"He's outside the door already."

"What? You knew? How come you didn't tell me?"

"Even if I did what would you do? You would freak out instead. That would make our conversation impassible."

"Haha... Concubine Xiu is smart. I'm quite good at hiding my presence, yet you still found me out."

"Scholar Shu, I'm a woman who is only two ranks lower than His Highness."

"But we're both higher than you, so how come you can still sense us? Logically, you shouldn't be able to unless you were the same rank or higher."

"I'm a lower rank, but higher at the same time. His Highness understands what I mean." I smiled towards the prince."

"I'll do as you say. I'm very satisfied that you also don't want to marry me. I'll make a plan to cancel our engagement."

"Thank you, Your Highness!"

"Ling'er, how come your in here? Shouldn't you be in your room? Your not healed yet."

"I'm waiting for someone. I made presence here known. As long as he recognizes it, he will come out. Not exactly in a peaceful way though." That man is probably still mad at me from the last time.

All of a sudden, a strong gust a wind hit me. It wasn't so strong that it would cause harm, but strong enough to feel like you got hit in the face.

"Speak of the devil. Xue Liuxian, your finally here. Do you know how long I waited?"

"Why should I care? What do you want?"

"Come on, stop being so pissed about what happened last time. It wasn't me who planned it anyways. It was Lu Ming who planned on giving you a prostitute as your wife."

"Hmph! That's why I'm still talking to you. Who are these people?"

I pointed to each person as I said their names. "Shu Xienghao. Ling Rui. Wu Lim."

"Friends?"

With a serious face, I told him what I wanted. "Yes. Liuxian, I have a favor."

"Hm?"

I wanted to tell him, but there were outsiders in this right now.

Seeing that Zhao Ling didn't say anything, the outsiders left except Wu Lim.

"Your fine with him?"

"Yes... He... Already knows."

"I see... What do you need?"

"Help me remove my curse."

"Sigh... Zhao Ling, back then I told you that if you wanted to break the curse it would be painful because your body had not full developed. And now I'm saying the same thing again. Your ocean is locked which is why it is hard to remove the curse."

"I'm fine. I don't care about the pain. I just need the curse to be removed. The longer it stays with me, the more I feel like dying everyday. If I died, I would feel regretful towards Lu Ming"

"Sigh... At least let me help you to unlock your ocean first. By unlocking it, the removal of the curse would be easier."

"How long will it take?"

"Let's see... I have to prepare your toxin bath, your medicine, help you with your meditation everyday. At least one month and it would be more than enough to unlock your ocean, but if anything goes wrong during the process, the risk of dying is even higher."

"Luxian how come I didn't know about this until now?"

"Lu Ming told me not to use this method on you and said that there was a less painful method. Seeing that he was a person who can achieve many things, I did as he said and never told you about it. The thing is that... "

And in a voice of disappointment, "What else did he say?"

"I don't think he ever planned on telling you until it was removed, but he told me that seeing you in pain would hurt him, too. Seriously, every time I talk to him about the you, he would shove PDA in my face. Do you know how irritating it is?"

"He... Never told me these stuff." I never knew that he loved me too but kept to himself just for me. And all along I thought he just wanted to keep me in place. I had loved him so much yet, I never told him because I thought I knew he would reject me.

"Even knowing that you may die with one wrong thing, you still want to go along with the plan?"

"Yes. I'm determined to remove this pest from my life."

Wu Lim grabbed my hand and looked at me with a fierce look. I knew he was angry at my choice. I knew he was sad at my choice, but I had to do something now. Since coming to the temple, I had a resolution to get rid of this curse as fast as possible.

"Ling'er, don't."

"Your Highness, I must. If I don't, one day, I'll die a painful death for sure."

"You'll still go through pain. If you made a mistake in the process of this one month plan, you'll die faster than even dying from pain. At least live longer."

With a sad smile, I told him, "Your Highness, who said I was going to die? I'm not ready to leave this world yet. I still want to explore the world. To seek vengeance for myself. To find my true identity."